Diabetes Juvenile diabetes Childhood diabetes Teach children
Diabetes symptom Diabetes management Beta cells in type1 Pancreas

 

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" My Home is my castle " as the saying goes .Build yourself a castle of knowledge and motivation to make it possible to get along with your diabetes

Diabetes means "flowing through "and mellitus means "sweet as honey".

  
Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar (glucose) into energy. Although type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, it typically appears during childhood or adolescence.  
Type 1 diabetes has no cure. But advances in blood sugar monitoring and insulin delivery have simplified the daily routine of managing type 1 diabetes. With proper treatment, people who have type 1 diabetes can expect to live long, healthy lives.
     
     
Progress of the childhood diabetes:  
Diabetes in children progresses through certain definite stages:
In the first stage: The disease may appear at the very early age.  It deteriorates very rapidly and may be admitted in comatose state. Five years old girl was admitted in coma when it was diagnosed as diabetic ketoacidosis with plasma glucose level over 600mg%. At the discharge, the child is stabilized to the extent that he is outwardly free from his symptoms .		  
In the second stage:  There is a period when the child's insulin requirement is less than dose prescribed at the time of discharge from the hospital. This is called "honey-moon period" or "remission period". This stage means that his beta cells are still producing some insulin, but is not sufficient enough to keep the child free from diabetes. Only one dose insulin in the morning is sufficient to lower the blood glucose level under control for the whole day. This period lasts for months or years.  
In the third stage: Beta cells stop secreting insulin. The blood sugar control is totally dependent on exogenous insulin and the insulin requirement rises.
Fourth stage is puberty: To control of diabetes at this stage is very difficult for a number of both physiological and emotional reasons. The more problems are faced with girls. Insulin requirement is more in adolescence.		  
Usually if diabetes appear at the age of ten or eleven, there may not be the stage of stage of "honey - moon period". Third and fourth stage comes very quickly. Some children never show a clear " honey-moon period"
LONG TERM VIEWS OF THE CHILDHOOD DIABETES  
School performance:- Intellectual performance of the diabetic child is normal or slightly. Probably, the disease makes him more conscious than others. Usually the good school performance is not observed with the depressed children  may be because of lack of family supports .  
Sports & Occupation  
The diabetic child can join any kind of sport provided they are properly educated, such as taking a little extra carbohydrate before participating any sport. They should join the armed forces or drive any vehicle including plane where lives of so many people are at risk. Professional careers are suitable for the diabetic children.  
Marriage  
There is no bar to marriage. The diabetic should not choose another diabetic as his life partner where chances of diabetic offspring are more than the non-diabetics .  
     
     
 
Healthy Cell Sugar in the food is absorbed from the intestine into the blood in the form of glucose. Glucose must enter the cells to be of any use to them in producing energy .The hormone insulin is needed to "open the door" i.e make the wall of the cell permeable to glucose. Inside the cell, the glucose is metabolized with the help of oxygen into carbon di oxide water and energy. Carbon di oxide is exchanged for oxygen in the lungs. Energy is of vital importance to the cell and enables it to work well. glucose is also stored in the form of glycogen in liver and muscle cells for the future use. The brain is not capable of storing glucose as glycogen and is thereby dependent of an even and continuous supply of the glucose from the blood.
 
Starvation when there is no food available there will be alack of glucose in the blood. Opening the " cell door "with the help of insulin will do no good. In the healthy person the production of insulin will be stopped almost completely when the blood glucose level decreases. The alpha cells in the pancreas recognize the lowered blood glucose level and secrete the hormone  glucagon  into the blood stream. Glucagon signals the liver cells to release glucose from the reserve supply of glycogen. If the starvation continues the body will use the next reserve system for glucose supply .Fat is broken down in fatty acids and glycerol with the help of the stress hormone adrenaline. The fatty acids are transformed into ketones in the liver ( starvation ketones ) and glycerol is changed into glucose. These reactions will take place when you are fasting or when you are too ill to eat. The cells of the body (except from brain ) can burn fatty acids while muscles and brain can burn ketones. The cells will retrieved some energy from this but not as much as when glucose is available. If the body is starving for the longer period of time proteins will also be broken down and converted into glucose.  
Diabetes and insulin deficiency Diabetes Type 1 is deficiency disease where the hormone insulin is absent. This results in glucose not being able to enter the cells.  The cells will then act exactly as in the starvation situation in the illustration above. Your body will try to raise the blood glucose to even higher levels since it believes that the reason for the lack of glucose inside the cells is a low glucose level in the blood  (see "your body will always think as if it was still non- diabetic" healthy cell ). the hormones adrenaline and glucagon will give signals to the liver to release glucose from glycogen stores. However the starvation takes place in the midst of abundance. In the blood stream there is an excess of fatty acids are being produced which are then transformed into ketones in the liver (" diabetic ketones" ). The ketones are also passed out into the urine. When insulin is supplied the cells can function properly again and this " vicious cycle " will be broken. " Starvation Ketones" and " diabetes ketones" are chemically identical but we often refer to them differently depending on how they originate .